Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in

Article Talk Read Edit View history Search Wikipedia

Master boot record

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Main page This article is about a PC-specific type of boot sector on partitioned media. For the first sector on non-partitioned media, see volume boot record.
Contents A master boot record (MBR) is a special type of boot sector at the very beginning of partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible
Featured content
systems and beyond. The concept of MBRs was publicly introduced in 1983 with PC DOS 2.0.
Current events
Random article The MBR holds the information on how the logical partitions, containing file systems, are organized on that medium. The MBR also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed operating
Donate to Wikipedia system—usually by passing control over to the loader's second stage, or in conjunction with each partition's volume boot record (VBR). This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader.[1]
Wikipedia store
The organization of the partition table in the MBR limits the maximum addressable storage space of a disk to 2 TiB (232 × 512 bytes).[2] Approaches to slightly raise this limit assuming 33-bit arithmetics or 4096-
Interaction byte sectors are not officially supported, as they fatally break compatibility with existing boot loaders and most MBR-compliant operating systems and system tools, and can cause serious data corruption when
Help used outside of narrowly controlled system environments. Therefore, the MBR-based partitioning scheme is in the process of being superseded by the GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme in new computers. A
About Wikipedia GPT can coexist with an MBR in order to provide some limited form of backward compatibility for older systems.
Community portal
MBRs are not present on non-partitioned media such as floppies, superfloppies or other storage devices configured to behave as such. On such a superfloppy, the entire media is treated as a single partition. [3]
Recent changes
Contact page
Contents [hide]
Tools 1 Overview
What links here 2 Disk partitioning
Related changes 2.1 Sector layout
Upload file 2.2 Partition table entries
Special pages 3 System bootstrapping
Permanent link 4 Disk identity
Page information
5 Programming considerations
Wikidata item
5.1 BIOS to MBR interface
Cite this page
5.2 MBR to VBR interface
In other projects 6 Editing and replacing contents

Wikimedia Commons
7 See also
8 Notes
Print/export 9 References
Create a book 10 Further reading
Download as PDF 11 External links
Printable version

Languages
Overview [edit]
‫ا ﻟ ﻌ ﺮﺑ ﻴ ﺔ‬
Български Support for partitioned media, and thereby the master boot record (MBR), was introduced with IBM PC DOS 2.0 in March 1983 in order to support the 10 MB hard disk of the then-new IBM Personal Computer
Català XT, still using the FAT12 file system. The original version of the MBR was written by David Litton of IBM in June 1982. The partition table supported up to four primary partitions, of which DOS could only use
Čeština one. This did not change when FAT16 was introduced as a new file system with DOS 3.0. Support for an extended partition, a special primary partition type used as a container to hold other partitions, was
Dansk added with DOS 3.2, and nested logical drives inside an extended partition came with DOS 3.30. Since MS-DOS, PC DOS, OS/2 and Windows were never enabled to boot off them, the MBR format and boot
Deutsch
code remained almost unchanged in functionality, except for in some third-party implementations, throughout the eras of DOS and OS/2 up to 1996.
Español
Euskara In 1996, support for logical block addressing (LBA) was introduced in Windows 95B and DOS 7.10 in order to support disks larger than 8 GB. Disk timestamps were also introduced.[4] This also reflected the
‫ﻓﺎر ﺳ ﯽ‬ idea that the MBR is meant to be operating system and file system independent. However, this design rule was partially compromised in more recent Microsoft implementations of the MBR, which enforce CHS
Français
access for FAT16B and FAT32 partition types 06 hex/0Bhex, whereas LBA is used for 0Ehex/0Chex.

Bahasa Indonesia Despite sometimes poor documentation of certain intrinsic details of the MBR format (which occasionally caused compatibility problems), it has been widely adopted as a de facto industry standard, due to the
Italiano broad popularity of PC-compatible computers and its semi-static nature over decades. This was even to the extent of being supported by computer operating systems for other platforms. Sometimes this was in
‫ע ב רי ת‬ addition to other pre-existing or cross-platform standards for bootstrapping and partitioning.[5]
Magyar
Nederlands
MBR partition entries and the MBR boot code used in commercial operating systems, however, are limited to 32 bits. [2] Therefore, the maximum disk size supported on disks using 512-byte sectors (whether real
or emulated) by the MBR partitioning scheme (without using non-standard methods) is limited to 2 TiB. [2] Consequently, a different partitioning scheme must be used for larger disks, as they have become widely
Norsk available since 2010. The MBR partitioning scheme is therefore in the process of being superseded by the GUID Partition Table (GPT). The official approach does little more than ensuring data integrity by
Polski employing a protective MBR. Specifically, it does not provide backward compatibility with operating systems that do not support the GPT scheme as well. Meanwhile, multiple forms of hybrid MBRs have been
Português designed and implemented by third parties in order to maintain partitions located in the first physical 2 TiB of a disk in both partitioning schemes "in parallel" and/or to allow older operating systems to boot off
Русский
GPT partitions as well. The present non-standard nature of these solutions causes various compatibility problems in certain scenarios.
Simple English
Svenska The MBR consists of 512 or more bytes located in the first sector of the drive.
Українська
It may contain one or more of:
Tiếng Việt
A partition table describing the partitions of a storage device. In this context the boot sector may also be called a partition sector.
Edit links
Bootstrap code: Instructions to identify the configured bootable partition, then load and execute its volume boot record (VBR) as a chain loader.
Optional 32-bit disk timestamp.[4]
Optional 32-bit disk signature.[6][7][8][9]

Disk partitioning [edit]

IBM PC DOS 2.0 introduced the FDISK utility to set up and maintain MBR partitions. When a storage device has been partitioned according to this scheme, its MBR contains a partition table describing the
locations, sizes, and other attributes of linear regions referred to as partitions.

The partitions themselves may also contain data to describe more complex partitioning schemes, such as extended boot records (EBRs), BSD disklabels, or Logical Disk Manager metadata partitions.[10]

The MBR is not located in a partition; it is located at a first sector of the device (physical offset 0), preceding the first partition. (The boot sector present on a non-partitioned device or within an individual partition
is called a volume boot record instead.) In cases where the computer is running a DDO BIOS overlay or boot manager, the partition table may be moved to some other physical location on the device; e.g.,
Ontrack Disk Manager often placed a copy of the original MBR contents in the second sector, then hid itself from any subsequently booted OS or application, so the MBR copy was treated as if it were still
residing in the first sector.

Sector layout [edit]

By convention, there are exactly four primary partition table entries in the MBR partition table scheme, although some operating systems and system tools extended this to five (Advanced Active Partitions (AAP)
with PTS-DOS 6.60[11] and DR-DOS 7.07), eight (AST and NEC MS-DOS 3.x [12][13] as well as Storage Dimensions SpeedStor), or even sixteen entries (with Ontrack Disk Manager).

Structure of a classical generic MBR Structure of a modern standard MBR

Address Size Address Size
Description Description
Hex Dec (bytes) Hex Dec (bytes)

+000 hex +0 Bootstrap code area 446 +000 hex +0 Bootstrap code area (part 1) 218
+1BE hex +446 Partition entry №1 16 +0DAhex +218 0000hex 2
+1CEhex +462 Partition entry №2 Partition table 16 Original physical
+0DChex +220 drive Disk timestamp [4][b] (optional, MS-DOS 1
+1DEhex +478 Partition entry №3 (for primary partitions) 16
( 80 hex – FFhex ) 7.1–8.0 and Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME.
+1EE hex +494 Partition entry №4 16 Alternatively, can serve as OEM loader
+0DDhex +221 Seconds (0–59) 1
+1FEhex +510 55 hex signature with NEWLDR)
Boot signature [a] 2 +0DEhex +222 Minutes (0–59) 1
+1FFhex +511 AAhex
+0DF hex +223 Hours (0–23) 1
Total size: 446 + 4×16 + 2 512
216
+0E0hex +224 Bootstrap code area (part 2, code entry at +000 hex ) (or
222)
32-bit disk
+1B8hex +440 4
signature
Disk signature (optional, UEFI, Windows
0000hex
NT/2000/Vista/7 and other OSes)
+444 2
 +1BChex ( 5A5Ahex if
copy-protected)
Partition entry
+1BE hex +446 16
№1
Partition entry
+1CEhex +462 16
№2 Partition table
Partition entry (for primary partitions)
+1DEhex +478 16
№3
Partition entry
+1EE hex +494 16
№4
+1FEhex +510 55 hex
Boot signature [a] 2
+1FFhex +511 AAhex
Total size: 218 + 6 + 216 + 6 + 4×16 + 2 512

Structure of AAP MBR Structure of NEWLDR MBR

Address Size Address Size
Description Description
Hex Dec (bytes) Hex Dec (bytes)

+000 hex +0 Bootstrap code area 428 JMPS ( EBhex ) / NEWLDR record size (often
+1AChex +428 78 hex AAP signature +000 hex +0 0Ahex / 16 hex / 1Chex for code start at 2
2 +00Chex / +018 hex / +01Ehex )
+1ADhex +429 56 hex (optional)
+002 hex +2 " NEWLDR " signature 6
AAP physical drive ( 80 hex - FEhex ; 00 hex :
+1AE hex +430 1 LOADER physical drive and boot flag
not used; 01 hex - 7Fhex , FFhex : reserved)
( 80 hex - FEhex , 00 hex - 7Ehex , FFhex ,
CHS (start) address of AAP partition/image +008 hex +8 1
+1AFhex +431 3 7Fhex ) (if not used, this and following 3 bytes
file or VBR/EBR
must be all 0)
Reserved for AAP partition type ( 00 hex if not
+1B2hex +434 1 CHS address of LOADER boot sector or image
used) (optional) +009 hex +9 3
file (f.e. IBMBIO.LDR) ( 000000hex if not used)
Reserved for CHS end address in AAP AAP record
(optional) Allowed DL minimum, else take from partition NEWLDR
(optional; byte at offset +1B5hex is also used
+1B3hex +435 3 +00Chex +12 table ( 80 hex : default; 00 hex : always use DL; record 1
for MBR checksum (PTS DE, BootWizard); (AAP partition
entry #0 with FFhex : always use table entry) (optional)
000000hex if not used)
special +00Dhex +13 Reserved (default: 000000hex ) 3
Start LBA of AAP image file or VBR/EBR or
semantics) LBA of LOADER boot sector or image file
relative sectors of AAP partition (copied to +010 hex +16 4
offset +01Chex in the loaded sector over (optional, 00000000hex if not used)
+1B6hex +438 4
the "hidden sectors" entry of a DOS 3.31 BPB Patch offset of VBR boot unit (default 0000hex if
+014 hex +20 2
(or emulation thereof) to also support EBR not used, else 0024hex or 01FDhex )
booting) +016 hex +22 Checksum ( 0000hex if not used) 2
Reserved for sectors in AAP (optional; OEM loader signature (" MSWIN4 " for REAL/32,
+1BA hex +442 4
00000000hex if not used) see also offset +0DAhex , corresponds with
+018 hex +24 6
+1BE hex +446 Partition entry №1 16 OEM label at offset +003 hex in VBRs
Partition table (optional)
+1CEhex +462 Partition entry №2 16
(for primary
+1DEhex +478 Partition entry №3 16 Varies Varies Bootstrap code area (code entry at +000 hex ) Varies
partitions)
+1EE hex +494 Partition entry №4 16 +1AChex +428 78 hex AAP
signature 2
+1FEhex +510 55 hex Boot +1ADhex +429 56 hex
2 (optional)
+1FFhex +511 AAhex signature [a]
AAP
Total size: 428 + 2 + 16 + 4×16 + 2 512 +1AE hex +430 AAP partition entry №0 with special semantics record 16
(optional)
+1BE hex +446 Partition entry №1 Partition 16
+1CEhex +462 Partition entry №2 table 16
(for
+1DEhex +478 Partition entry №3 16
primary
+1EE hex +494 Partition entry №4 partitions) 16

+1FEhex +510 55 hex Boot

2
+1FFhex +511 AAhex signature [a]

Total size: 30 + 398 + 2 + 16 + 4×16 + 2 512

Structure of AST/NEC MS-DOS and SpeedStor Structure of Ontrack Disk Manager MBR
MBR Address Size
Description
Address Size Hex Dec (bytes)
Description
Hex Dec (bytes)
+000 hex +0 Bootstrap code area 252
+000 hex +0 Bootstrap code area 380 +0FC hex +252 AAhex
DM signature (optional) 2
+17Chex +380 5Ahex AST/NEC signature (optional, not for +0FD hex +253 55 hex
2
+17Dhex +381 A5hex SpeedStor)
+0FEhex +254 Partition entry 16
Partition entry +10Ehex +270 Partition entry 16
+17Ehex +382 16
№8
+11Ehex +286 Partition entry 16
Partition entry
+18Ehex +398 16 +12Ehex +302 Partition entry 16
№7 AST/NEC expanded partition table
+13Ehex +318 Partition entry 16
Partition entry (optional, also for SpeedStor)
+19Ehex +414 16 +14Ehex +334 Partition entry DM expanded partition table 16
№6
+15Ehex +350 Partition entry (optional) 16
Partition entry
+1AE hex +430 16
№5 +16Ehex +366 Partition entry 16

Partition entry +17Ehex +382 Partition entry 16

+1BE hex +446 16
№4 +18Ehex +398 Partition entry 16
Partition entry +19Ehex +414 Partition entry 16
+1CEhex +462 16
№3 Partition table +1AE hex +430 Partition entry 16
Partition entry (for primary partitions)
+1DEhex +478 16 +1BE hex +446 Partition entry №1 16
№2
Partition entry +1CEhex +462 Partition entry №2 Partition table 16
+1EE hex +494 16 (for primary partitions)
№1 +1DEhex +478 Partition entry №3 16
+1FEhex +510 55 hex +1EE hex +494 Partition entry №4 16
Boot signature [a] 2
+1FFhex +511 AAhex +1FEhex +510 55 hex
Boot signature [a] 2
Total size: 380 + 2 + 4×16 + 4×16 + 2 512 +1FFhex +511 AAhex
Total size: 252 + 2 + 12×16 + 4×16 + 2 512

Partition table entries [edit]

An artifact of hard disk technology from the era of the PC XT, the partition table subdivides a storage medium using units of cylinders, Layout of one 16-byte partition entry [14] (all multi-byte
heads, and sectors (CHS addressing). These values no longer correspond to their namesakes in modern disk drives, as well as being fields are little-endian)
irrelevant in other devices such as solid-state drives, which do not physically have cylinders or heads.
In the CHS scheme, sector indices have (almost) always begun with sector 1 rather than sector 0 by convention, and due to an error in Offset Field Description
all versions of MS-DOS/PC DOS up to including 7.10, the number of heads is generally limited to 255[g][citation needed] instead of 256. (bytes) length
When a CHS address is too large to fit into these fields, the tuple (1023, 254, 63) is typically used today, although on older systems, and Status or physical drive (bit 7 set is for
with older disk tools, the cylinder value often wrapped around modulo the CHS barrier near 8 GB, causing ambiguity and risks of data active or bootable, old MBRs only
+0hex 1 byte
corruption. (If the situation involves a "protective" MBR on a disk with a GPT, Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface specification requires accept 80 hex , 00 hex means inactive,
that the tuple (1023, 255, 63) be used.) The 10-bit cylinder value is recorded within two bytes in order to facilitate making calls to the and 01 hex – 7Fhex stand for invalid)[c]
original/legacy INT 13h BIOS disk access routines, where 16 bits were divided into sector and cylinder parts, and not on byte CHS address of first absolute sector in
boundaries.[15] +1hex 3 bytes partition.[d] The format is described by
Due to the limits of CHS addressing, [18][19] a transition was made to using LBA, or logical block addressing. Both the partition length and three bytes, see the next three rows.
partition start address are sector values stored in the partition table entries as 32-bit quantities. The sector size used to be considered
fixed at 512 (2 9) bytes, and a broad range of important components including chipsets, boot sectors, operating systems, database h7–0
+1hex 1 byte head[e]
engines, partitioning tools, backup and file system utilities and other software had this value hard-coded. Since the end of 2009, disk x x x x x x x x
drives employing 4096-byte sectors (4Kn or Advanced Format) have been available, although the size of the sector for some of these
drives was still reported as 512 bytes to the host system through conversion in the hard-drive firmware and referred to as 512 emulation
drives (512e). c9–8 s5–0 sector in bits
5–0; bits 7–6
Since block addresses and sizes are stored in the partition table of an MBR using 32 bits, the maximal size, as well as the highest start +2hex 1 byte
address, of a partition using drives that have 512-byte sectors (actual or emulated) cannot exceed 2 TiB−512 bytes (2,199,023,255,040 x x x x x x x x are high bits of
cylinder[e]
bytes or 4,294,967,295 (232−1) sectors × 512 (29) bytes per sector). [2] Alleviating this capacity limitation was one of the prime
motivations for the development of the GPT.

Since partitioning information is stored in the MBR partition table using a beginning block address and a length, it may in theory be c7–0 bits 7–0 of
possible to define partitions in such a way that the allocated space for a disk with 512-byte sectors gives a total size approaching 4 TiB, +3hex 1 byte [e]
x x x x x x x x cylinder
if all but one partition are located below the 2 TiB limit and the last one is assigned as starting at or close to block 232−1 and specify the
size as up to 232−1, thereby defining a partition that requires 33 rather than 32 bits for the sector address to be accessed. However, in +4hex 1 byte Partition type[16]
practice, only certain LBA-48-enabled operating systems, including GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and Windows 7[20] that use 64-bit sector
CHS address of last absolute sector in
addresses internally actually support this. Due to code space constraints and the nature of the MBR partition table to only support 32
+5hex 3 bytes partition.[d] The format is described by 3
bits, boot sectors, even if enabled to support LBA-48 rather than LBA-28, often use 32-bit calculations, unless they are specifically
bytes, see the next 3 rows.
designed to support the full address range of LBA-48 or are intended to run on 64-bit platforms only. Any boot code or operating system
using 32-bit sector addresses internally would cause addresses to wrap around accessing this partition and thereby result in serious
h7–0
data corruption over all partitions. +5hex 1 byte head[e]
x x x x x x x x
For disks that present a sector size other than 512 bytes, such as USB external drives, there are limitations as well. A sector size of
4096 results in an eight-fold increase in the size of a partition that can be defined using MBR, allowing partitions up to 16 TiB
(232 × 4096 bytes) in size. [21] Versions of Windows more recent than Windows XP support the larger sector sizes, as well as Mac OS X, c9–8 s5–0 sector in bits
and Linux has supported larger sector sizes since 2.6.31 [22] or 2.6.32,[23] but issues with boot loaders, partitioning tools and computer 5–0; bits 7–6
BIOS implementations present certain limitations,[24] since they are often hard-wired to reserve only 512 bytes for sector buffers, +6hex 1 byte
x x x x x x x x are high bits of
causing memory to become overwritten for larger sector sizes. This may cause unpredictable behaviour as well, and therefore should be cylinder[e]
avoided when compatibility and standard conformity is an issue.

Where a data storage device has been partitioned with the GPT scheme, the master boot record will still contain a partition table, but its
only purpose is to indicate the existence of the GPT and to prevent utility programs that understand only the MBR partition table scheme c7–0 bits 7–0 of
+7hex 1 byte
from creating any partitions in what they would otherwise see as free space on the disk, thereby accidentally erasing the GPT. x x x x x x x x cylinder

System bootstrapping [edit] +8hex 4 bytes

LBA of first absolute sector in the
partition[f]
On IBM PC-compatible computers, the bootstrapping firmware (contained within the ROM BIOS) loads and executes the master boot
+Chex 4 bytes Number of sectors in partition [f]
record. [25] The PC/XT (type 5160) used an Intel 8088 microprocessor. In order to remain compatible, all x86 architecture systems start
with the microprocessor in an operating mode referred to as real mode. The BIOS reads the MBR from the storage device into physical
memory, and then it directs the microprocessor to the start of the boot code. Since the BIOS runs in real mode, the processor is in real mode when the MBR program begins to execute, and so the beginning of
the MBR is expected to contain real-mode machine code.[25]

Due to the restricted size of the MBR's code section, it typically contains only a small program that copies additional code (such as a boot loader) from the storage device into memory. More accurately such an
additional code is loaded from the Volume Boot Record (VBR) of the targeted partition (see below). Control is then passed to this code (for instance it might be GRUB), which is responsible for loading the actual
operating system. This process is known as chain loading.

Popular MBR code programs were created for booting PC DOS and MS-DOS, and similar boot code remains in wide use. These boot sectors expect the fdisk partition table scheme to be in use and scans the
list of partitions in the MBR's embedded partition table to find the only one that is marked with the active flag.[26] It then loads and runs the volume boot record (VBR) of the active partition.

As a side information it might be noted that, because the BIOS transfers control directly to the MBR program, and because the program runs in real mode, the MBR can - in theory - do anything, including loading
other programs or data from any device, interacting with the user, reconfiguring and/or controlling peripherals, reading or writing to any disks in any amount, or even overwriting and destroying the BIOS data
block. If neither the MBR nor any other program that the MBR starts calls the BIOS afterward, then even this last action is legitimate. The MBR program receives total control of the machine, without restriction.

There are alternative boot code implementations, some of which are installed by boot managers, which operate in a variety of ways. Some MBR code loads additional code for a boot manager from the first track
of the disk, which it assumes to be "free" space that is not allocated to any disk partition, and executes it. A MBR program may interact with the user to determine which partition on which drive should boot, and
may transfer control to the MBR of a different drive. Other MBR code contains a list of disk locations (often corresponding to the contents of files in a filesystem) of the remainder of the boot manager code to
load and to execute. (The first relies on behavior that is not universal across all disk partitioning utilities, most notably those that read and write GPTs. The last requires that the embedded list of disk locations be
updated when changes are made that would relocate the remainder of the code.)

On machines that do not use x86 processors, or on x86 machines with non-BIOS firmware such as Open Firmware or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) firmware, this design is unsuitable, and the MBR is not
used as part of the system bootstrap.[27] EFI firmware is instead capable of directly understanding the GPT partitioning scheme and the FAT filesystem format, and loads and runs programs held as files in the
EFI System partition.[28] The MBR will be involved only insofar as it might contain a partition table for compatibility purposes if the GPT partition table scheme has been used.

There is some MBR replacement code that emulates EFI firmware's bootstrap, which makes non-EFI machines capable of booting from disks using the GPT partitioning scheme. It detects a GPT, places the
processor in the correct operating mode, and loads the EFI compatible code from disk to complete this task.

Disk identity [edit]

In addition to the bootstrap code and a partition table, master boot records may contain a disk signature. This is a 32-bit value that is intended to identify
uniquely the disk medium (as opposed to the disk unit—the two not necessarily being the same for removable hard disks).

The disk signature was introduced by Windows NT version 3.5, but it is now used by several operating systems, including the Linux kernel version 2.6 and
later. GNU/Linux tools can use the NT disk signature to determine which disk the machine booted from.[29]

Windows NT (and later Microsoft operating systems) uses the disk signature as an index to all the partitions on any disk ever connected to the computer
under that OS; these signatures are kept in Windows Registry keys, primarily for storing the persistent mappings between disk partitions and drive letters. It
may also be used in Windows NT BOOT.INI files (though most do not), to describe the location of bootable Windows NT (or later) partitions. [30] One key
(among many) where NT disk signatures appear in a Windows 2000/XP registry is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\
Information contained in the partition table of an
external hard drive as it appears in the utility program
If a disk's signature stored in the MBR was A8 E1 B9 D2hex (in that order) and its first partition corresponded with logical drive C: under Windows, then the QtParted, running under GNU/Linux
REG_BINARY data under the key value \DosDevices\C: would be

A8 E1 B9 D2 00 7E 00 00 00 00 00 00hex

The first four bytes are said disk signature. (Note: In other keys, these bytes may appear in reverse order from that found in the MBR sector.) These are followed by eight more bytes, forming a 64-bit integer, in
little-endian notation, which are used to locate the byte offset of this partition. In this case, 00 hex 7Ehex corresponds to the hexadecimal value 7E00hex (32,256). If we assume the drive in question reports a
sector size of 512 bytes, then dividing this byte offset by 512 results in 63, which is the physical sector number (or LBA) containing the first sector of the partition (unlike the sector count used in the sectors value
of CHS tuples, which counts from one, the absolute or LBA sector value starts counting from zero).

If this disk had another partition with the values 00 F8 93 71 02 hex following the disk signature (under, e.g., the key value \DosDevices\D: ), it would begin at byte offset 00027193F800hex (10,495,457,280),
which is also the first byte of physical sector 20,498,940.

Starting with Windows Vista, the disk signature is also stored in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, and the boot process depends on it. [31] If the disk signature changes, cannot be found or has a conflict,
Windows is unable to boot.[32] Unless Windows is forced to use the overlapping part of the LBA address of the Advanced Active Partition entry as pseudo-disk signature, Windows' usage is conflictive with the
Advanced Active Partition feature of PTS-DOS 7 and DR-DOS 7.07, in particular, if their boot code is located outside the first 8 GB of the disk, so that LBA addressing must be used.
Programming considerations [edit]

The MBR originated in the PC XT.[33] IBM PC-compatible computers are little-endian, which means the processor stores numeric values spanning two or more bytes in memory least significant byte first. The
format of the MBR on media reflects this convention. Thus, the MBR signature will appear in a disk editor as the sequence 55 hex AA hex .[a]

The bootstrap sequence in the BIOS will load the first valid MBR that it finds into the computer's physical memory at address 0000hex : 7C00hex .[33] The last instruction executed in the BIOS code will be a
"jump" to that address, to direct execution to the beginning of the MBR copy. The primary validation for most BIOSes is the signature at offset +1FEhex , although a BIOS implementer may choose to include
other checks, such as verifying that the MBR contains a valid partition table without entries referring to sectors beyond the reported capacity of the disk.

While the MBR boot sector code expects to be loaded at physical address 0000hex : 7C00hex ,[h] all the memory from physical address 0000hex : 0501hex (address 0000hex : 0500hex is the last one used by a
Phoenix BIOS) [15] to 0000hex : 7FFFhex ,[33] later relaxed to 0000hex : FFFFhex [34] (and sometimes [i] up to 9000hex : FFFFhex )​—​the end of the first 640 KB​—​is available in real mode.[j] The INT 12h BIOS
interrupt call may help in determining how much memory can be allocated safely (by default, it simply reads the base memory size in KB from segment:offset location 0040hex : 0013hex , but it may be hooked
by other resident pre-boot software like BIOS overlays, RPL code or viruses to reduce the reported amount of available memory in order to keep other boot stage software like boot sectors from overwriting
them).

The last 66 bytes of the 512-byte MBR are reserved for the partition table and other information, so the MBR boot sector program must be small enough to fit within 446 bytes of memory or less. The MBR code
may communicate with the user, examine the partition table. Eventually, the MBR will need to perform its main task, and load the program that will perform the next stage of the boot process, usually by making
use of INT 13h BIOS calls. While it may be convenient to think of the MBR and the program that it loads as separate and discrete, a clear distinction between the MBR and the loaded OS is not technically
required—the MBR, or parts of it,[k] could stay resident in RAM and be used as part of the loaded program, after the MBR transfers control to that program. The same is true of a volume boot record, whether that
volume is a floppy disk or a fixed disk partition. However, in practice, it is typical for the program loaded by a boot record program to discard and overwrite the RAM image of the latter, so that its only function is
as the first link of the boot loader chain.

From a technical standpoint, it is important to note that the distinction between an MBR and a volume boot record exists only at the user software level, above the BIOS firmware. (Here, the term "user software"
refers to both operating system software and application software.) To the BIOS, removable (e.g. floppy) and fixed disks are essentially the same. For either, the BIOS reads the first physical sector of the media
into RAM at absolute address 7C00hex , checks the signature in the last two bytes of the loaded sector, and then, if the correct signature is found, transfers control to the first byte of the sector with a jump (JMP)
instruction. The only real distinction that the BIOS makes is that (by default, or if the boot order is not configurable) it attempts to boot from the first removable disk before trying to boot from the first fixed disk.
From the perspective of the BIOS, the action of the MBR loading a volume boot record into RAM is exactly the same as the action of a floppy disk volume boot record loading the object code of an operating
system loader into RAM. In either case, the program that BIOS loaded is going about the work of chain loading an operating system. The distinction between an MBR and a volume boot record is an OS software-
level abstraction, designed to help people to understand the operational organization and structure of the system. That distinction doesn't exist for the BIOS. Whatever the BIOS directly loads, be it an MBR or a
volume boot record, is given total control of the system, and the BIOS from that point is solely at the service of that program. The loaded program owns the machine (until the next reboot, at least). With its total
control, this program is not required to ever call the BIOS again and may even shut BIOS down completely, by removing the BIOS ISR vectors from the processor interrupt vector table, and then overwrite the
BIOS data area. This is mentioned to emphasize that the boot program that the BIOS loads and runs from the first sector of a disk can truly do anything, so long as the program does not call for BIOS services or
allow BIOS ISRs to be invoked after it has disrupted the BIOS state necessary for those services and ISRs to function properly.

As stated above, the conventional MBR bootstrap code loads and runs (boot loader- or operating system-dependent) volume boot record code that is located at the beginning of the "active" partition. A
conventional volume boot record will fit within a 512-byte sector, but it is safe for MBR code to load additional sectors to accommodate boot loaders longer than one sector, provided they do not make any
assumptions on what the sector size is. In fact, at least 1 KB of RAM is available at address 7C00hex in every IBM XT- and AT-class machine, so a 1 KB sector could be used with no problem. Like the MBR, a
volume boot record normally expects to be loaded at address 0000hex : 7C00hex . This derives from the fact that the volume boot record design originated on unpartitioned media, where a volume boot record
would be directly loaded by the BIOS boot procedure; as mentioned above, the BIOS treats MBRs and volume boot records (VBRs)[l] exactly alike. Since this is the same location where the MBR is loaded, one
of the first tasks of an MBR is to relocate itself somewhere else in memory. The relocation address is determined by the MBR, but it is most often 0000hex : 0600hex (for MS-DOS/PC DOS, OS/2 and Windows
MBR code) or 0060hex : 0000hex (most DR-DOS MBRs). (Even though both of these segmented addresses resolve to the same physical memory address in real mode, for Apple Darwin to boot, the MBR must
be relocated to 0000hex : 0600hex instead of 0060hex : 0000hex , since the code depends on the DS:SI pointer to the partition entry provided by the MBR, but it erroneously refers to it via 0000hex :SI only. [35])
While the MBR code relocates itself it is still important not to relocate to other addresses in memory because many VBRs will assume a certain standard memory layout when loading their boot file.

The Status field in a partition table record is used to indicate an active partition. Standard-conformant MBRs will allow only one partition marked active and use this as part of a sanity-check to determine the
existence of a valid partition table. They will display an error message, if more than one partition has been marked active. Some non-standard MBRs will not treat this as an error condition and just use the first
marked partition in the row.

Traditionally, values other than 00 hex (not active) and 80 hex (active) were invalid and the bootstrap program would display an error message upon encountering them. However, the Plug and Play BIOS
Specification and BIOS Boot Specification (BBS) allowed other devices to become bootable as well since 1994. [34][36] Consequently, with the introduction of MS-DOS 7.10 (Windows 95B) and higher, the MBR
started to treat a set bit 7 as active flag and showed an error message for values 01 hex .. 7Fhex only. It continued to treat the entry as physical drive unit to be used when loading the corresponding partition's
VBR later on, thereby now also accepting other boot drives than 80 hex as valid, however, MS-DOS did not make use of this extension by itself. Storing the actual physical drive number in the partition table
does not normally cause backward compatibility problems, since the value will differ from 80 hex only on drives other than the first one (which have not been bootable before, anyway). However, even with
systems enabled to boot off other drives, the extension may still not work universally, for example, after the BIOS assignment of physical drives has changed, for example when drives are removed, added or
swapped. Therefore, per the BIOS Boot Specification (BBS),[34] it is best practice for a modern MBR accepting bit 7 as active flag to pass on the DL value originally provided by the BIOS instead of using the
entry in the partition table.

BIOS to MBR interface [edit]

The MBR is loaded at memory location 0000hex : 7C00hex and with the following CPU registers set up when the prior bootstrap loader (normally the IPL in the BIOS) passes execution to it by jumping to
0000hex : 7C00hex in the CPU's real mode.

CS:IP = 0000hex : 7C00hex (fixed)

Some Compaq BIOSes erroneously use 07C0hex : 0000hex instead. While this resolves to the same location in real mode memory, it is non-standard and should be avoided, since MBR code assuming
certain register values or not written to be relocatable may not work otherwise.

DL = boot drive unit (fixed disks / removable drives: 80 hex = first, 81 hex = second, ..., FEhex ; floppies / superfloppies: 00 hex = first, 01 hex = second, ..., 7Ehex ; values 7Fhex and FFhex are reserved
for ROM / remote drives and must not be used on disk).[37]
DL is supported by IBM BIOSes as well as most other BIOSes. The Toshiba T1000 BIOS is known to not support this properly, and some old Wyse 286 BIOSes use DL values greater or equal to 2 for fixed
disks (thereby reflecting the logical drive numbers under DOS rather than the physical drive numbers of the BIOS). USB sticks configured as removable drives typically get an assignment of DL = 80 hex ,
81 hex , etc. However, some rare BIOSes erroneously presented them under DL = 01 hex , just as if they were configured as superfloppies.
A standard conformant BIOS assigns numbers greater or equal to 80 hex exclusively to fixed disk / removable drives, and traditionally only values 80 hex and 00 hex were passed on as physical drive units
during boot. By convention, only fixed disks / removable drives are partitioned, therefore, the only DL value a MBR could see traditionally was 80 hex . Many MBRs were coded to ignore the DL value and
work with a hard-wired value (normally 80 hex ), anyway.
The Plug and Play BIOS Specification and BIOS Boot Specification (BBS) allow other devices to become bootable as well since 1994. [34][36] The later recommends that MBR and VBR code should use DL
rather than internally hardwired defaults. [34] This will also ensure compatibility with various non-standard assignments (see examples above), as far as the MBR code is concerned.
Bootable CD-ROMs following the El Torito specification may contain disk images mounted by the BIOS to occur as floppy or superfloppies on this interface. DL values of 00 hex and 01 hex may also be used
by Protected Area Run Time Interface Extension Services (PARTIES) and Trusted Computing Group (TCG) BIOS extensions in Trusted mode to access otherwise invisible PARTIES partitions, disk image
files located via the Boot Engineering Extension Record (BEER) in the last physical sector of a hard disk's Host Protected Area (HPA). While designed to emulate floppies or superfloppies, MBR code
accepting these non-standard DL values allows to use images of partitioned media at least in the boot stage of operating systems.

DH bit 5 = 0: device supported through INT 13h; else: don't care (should be zero). DH is supported by some IBM BIOSes.
Some of the other registers may typically also hold certain register values (DS, ES, SS = 0000hex ; SP = 0400hex ) with original IBM ROM BIOSes, but this is nothing to rely on, as other BIOSes may use
other values. For this reason, MBR code by IBM, Microsoft, Digital Research, etc. never did take any advantage of it. Relying on these register values in boot sectors may also cause problems in chain-boot
scenarios.

Systems with Plug-and-Play BIOS or BBS support will provide a pointer to PnP data in addition to DL: [34][36]

DL = boot drive unit (see above)

ES:DI = points to " $PnP " installation check structure
This information allows the boot loader in the MBR (or VBR, if passed on) to actively interact with the BIOS or a resident PnP / BBS BIOS overlay in memory in order to configure the boot order, etc.,
however, this information is ignored by most standard MBRs and VBRs. Ideally, ES:DI is passed on to the VBR for later use by the loaded operating system, but PnP-enabled operating systems typically also
have fallback methods to retrieve the PnP BIOS entry point later on so that most operating systems do not rely on this.

MBR to VBR interface [edit]

By convention, a standard conformant MBR passes execution to a successfully loaded VBR, loaded at memory location 0000hex : 7C00hex , by jumping to 0000hex : 7C00hex in the CPU's real mode with the
following registers maintained or specifically set up:

CS:IP = 0000hex : 7C00hex [m] (constant)

DL = boot drive unit (see above)
MS-DOS 2.0-7.0 / PC DOS 2.0-6.3 MBRs do not pass on the DL value received on entry, but they rather use the boot status entry in the partition table entry of the selected primary partition as physical boot
drive unit. Since this is, by convention, 80 hex in most MBR partition tables, it won't change things unless the BIOS attempted to boot off a physical device other than the first fixed disk / removable drive in the
row. This is also the reason why these operating systems cannot boot off a second hard disk, etc. Some FDISK tools allow to mark partitions on secondary disks as "active" as well. In this situation, knowing
that these operating systems cannot boot off other drives anyway, some of them continue to use the traditionally fixed value of 80 hex as active marker, whereas others use values corresponding with the
currently assigned physical drive unit ( 81 hex , 82 hex ), thereby allowing to boot off other drives at least in theory. In fact, this will work with many MBR codes, which take a set bit 7 of the boot status entry as
active flag rather than insisting on 80 hex , however, MS-DOS/PC DOS MBRs are hard-wired to accept the fixed value of 80 hex only. Storing the actual physical drive number in the partition table will also
cause problems, when the BIOS assignment of physical drives changes, for example when drives are removed, added or swapped. Therefore, for a normal MBR accepting bit 7 as active flag and otherwise
just using and passing on to the VBR the DL value originally provided by the BIOS allows for maximum flexibility. MS-DOS 7.1 - 8.0 MBRs have changed to treat bit 7 as active flag and any values
 01 hex .. 7Fhex as invalid, but they still take the physical drive unit from the partition table rather than using the DL value provided by the BIOS. DR-DOS 7.07 extended MBRs treat bit 7 as active flag and use
and pass on the BIOS DL value by default (including non-standard values 00 hex .. 01 hex used by some BIOSes also for partitioned media), but they also provide a special NEWLDR configuration block in
order to support alternative boot methods in conjunction with LOADER and REAL/32 as well as to change the detail behaviour of the MBR, so that it can also work with drive values retrieved from the partition
table (important in conjunction with LOADER and AAPs, see NEWLDR offset +00Chex ), translate Wyse non-standard drive units 02 hex .. 7Fhex to 80 hex .. FD hex , and optionally fix up the drive value
(stored at offset +19hex in the Extended BIOS Parameter Block (EBPB) or at sector offset +1FD hex ) in loaded VBRs before passing execution to them (see NEWLDR offset +014 hex )—this also
allows other boot loaders to use NEWLDR as a chain-loader, configure its in-memory image on the fly and "tunnel" the loading of VBRs, EBRs, or AAPs through NEWLDR.

The contents of DH and ES:DI should be preserved by the MBR for full Plug-and-Play support (see above), however, many MBRs, including those of MS-DOS 2.0 - 8.0 / PC DOS 2.0 - 6.3 and Windows
NT/2000/XP, do not. (This is unsurprising, since those versions of DOS predate the Plug-and-Play BIOS standard, and previous standards and conventions indicated no requirements to preserve any register
other than DL.) Some MBRs set DH to 0.

The MBR code passes additional information to the VBR in many implementations:

DS:SI = points to the 16-byte MBR partition table entry (in the relocated MBR) corresponding with the activated VBR. PC-MOS 5.1 depends on this to boot if no partition in the partition table is flagged as
bootable. In conjunction with LOADER, Multiuser DOS and REAL/32 boot sectors use this to locate the boot sector of the active partition (or another bootstrap loader like IBMBIO.LDR at a fixed position on
disk) if the boot file (LOADER.SYS) could not be found. PTS-DOS 6.6 and S/DOS 1.0 use this in conjunction with their Advanced Active Partition (AAP) feature. In addition to support for LOADER and AAPs,
DR-DOS 7.07 can use this to determine the necessary INT 13h access method when using its dual CHS/LBA VBR code and it will update the boot drive / status flag field in the partition entry according to the
effectively used DL value. Darwin bootloaders (Apple's boot1h , boot1u , and David Elliott's boot1fat32 ) depend on this pointer as well, but additionally they don't use DS, but assume it to be set to
0000hex instead.[35] This will cause problems if this assumption is incorrect. The MBR code of OS/2, MS-DOS 2.0 to 8.0, PC DOS 2.0 to 7.10 and Windows NT/2000/XP provides this same interface as well,
although these systems do not use it. The Windows Vista/7 MBRs no longer provide this DS:SI pointer. While some extensions only depend on the 16-byte partition table entry itself, other extensions may
require the whole 4 (or 5 entry) partition table to be present as well.
DS:BP = optionally points to the 16-byte MBR partition table entry (in the relocated MBR) corresponding with the activated VBR. This is identical to the pointer provided by DS:SI (see above) and is provided
by MS-DOS 2.0-8.0, PC DOS 2.0-7.10, Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 MBRs. It is, however, not supported by most third-party MBRs.

Under DR-DOS 7.07 an extended interface may be optionally provided by the extended MBR and in conjunction with LOADER:

AX = magic signature indicating the presence of this NEWLDR extension ( 0EDChex )

DL = boot drive unit (see above)
DS:SI = points to the 16-byte MBR partition table entry used (see above)
ES:BX = start of boot sector or NEWLDR sector image (typically 7C00hex )
CX = reserved

In conjunction with GPT, an Enhanced Disk Drive Specification (EDD) 4 Hybrid MBR proposal recommends another extension to the interface: [38]

EAX = 54504721hex (" !GPT ")

DL = boot drive unit (see above)
DS:SI = points to a Hybrid MBR handover structure, consisting of a 16-byte dummy MBR partition table entry (with all bits set except for the boot flag at offset +0hex and the partition type at offset +4hex )
followed by additional data. This is partially compatible with the older DS:SI extension discussed above, if only the 16-byte partition entry, not the whole partition table is required by these older extensions.
Since older operating systems (including their VBRs) do not support this extension nor are they able to address sectors beyond the 2 TiB barrier, a GPT-enabled hybrid boot loader should still emulate the 16-
byte dummy MBR partition table entry if the boot partition is located within the first 2 TiB. [n]

ES:DI = points to " $PnP " installation check structure (see above)

Editing and replacing contents [edit]

Though it is possible to manipulate the bytes in the MBR sector directly using various disk editors, there are tools to write fixed sets of functioning code to the MBR. Since MS-DOS 5.0, the program FDISK has
included the switch /MBR , which will rewrite the MBR code.[39] Under Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the Recovery Console can be used to write new MBR code to a storage device using its fixmbr
command. Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, the Recovery Environment can be used to write new MBR code using the BOOTREC /FIXMBR command. Some third-party utilities may also be used for
directly editing the contents of partition tables (without requiring any knowledge of hexadecimal or disk/sector editors), such as MBRWizard.[o]

dd is also a commonly used POSIX command to read or write to any location on a storage device, MBR included. In Linux, ms-sys may be used to install a Windows MBR. The GRUB and LILO projects have
tools for writing code to the MBR sector, namely grub-install and lilo -mbr . The GRUB Legacy interactive console can write to the MBR, using the setup and embed commands, but GRUB2 currently
requires grub-install to be run from within an operating system.

Various programs are able to create a "backup" of both the primary partition table and the logical partitions in the extended partition.

Linux sfdisk (on a SystemRescueCD) is able to save a backup of the primary and extended partition table. It creates a file that can be read in a text editor, or this file can be used by sfdisk to restore the
primary/extended partition table. An example command to back up the partition table is sfdisk -d /dev/hda > hda.out and to restore is sfdisk /dev/hda < hda.out . It is possible to copy the partition table from
one disk to another this way, useful for setting up mirroring, but it should be noted that sfdisk executes the command without prompting/warnings using sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb .[40]

See also [edit]

Extended boot record (EBR)

Volume boot record (VBR)
GUID Partition Table (GPT)
BIOS Boot partition
EFI System partition
Boot engineering extension record (BEER)
Host protected area (HPA)
Device configuration overlay (DCO)
Apple partition map (APM)
Amiga rigid disk block (RDB)
Volume Table of Contents (VTOC)
BSD disklabel
Boot loader
Disk cloning
Recovery disc
GNU Parted

Notes [edit]
a bc de fg
a. ^ The signature at offset +1FEhex in boot sectors is 55hex AAhex , that is 55hex at offset +1FEhex and AAhex at offset +1FFhex . Since little-endian representation must be assumed in the context of IBM
PC compatible machines, this can be written as 16-bit word AA55hex in programs for x86 processors (note the swapped order), whereas it would have to be written as 55AAhex in programs for other CPU architectures
using a big-endian representation. Since this has been mixed up numerous times in books and even in original Microsoft reference documents, this article uses the offset-based byte-wise on-disk representation to avoid
any possible misinterpretation.
b. ^ In order to ensure the integrity of the MBR boot loader code, it is important that the bytes at +0DAhex to +0DFhex are never changed, unless either all six bytes represent a value of 0 or the whole MBR bootstrap
loader code (except for the (extended) partition table) is replaced at the same time as well. This includes resetting these values to 00 00 00 00 00 00hex unless the code stored in the MBR is known. Windows adheres to
this rule.
c. ^ Originally, status values other than 00hex and 80hex were invalid, but modern MBRs treat the bit 7 as active flag and use this entry to store the physical boot unit.
d. ^ a b The starting sector fields are limited to 1023+1 cylinders, 255+1 heads, and 63 sectors; ending sector fields have the same limitations.
a bc de [15]
e. ^ The range for sector is 1 through 63; the range for cylinder is 0 through 1023; the range for head is 0 through 255 inclusive.
a b
f. ^ The number of sectors is an index field; thus, the zero value is invalid, reserved and must not be used in normal partition entries. The entry is used by operating systems in certain circumstances; in such cases the
CHS addresses are ignored.[17]
g. ^ "Quote: [Most] versions of MS-DOS (including MS-DOS 7 [Windows 95]) have a bug which prevents booting on hard disks with 256 heads (FFh), so many modern BIOSes provide mappings with at most 255 (FEh)
heads." RBIL[41][42]
h. ^ The address 0000hex : 7C00hex is the first byte of the 32nd KB of RAM. As a historical note, the loading of the boot program at this address was the obvious reason why, while the minimum RAM size of an original
IBM PC (type 5150) was 16 KB, 32 KB were required for the disk option in the IBM XT.
i. ^ If there is an EBDA, the available memory ends below it.
j. ^ Very old machines may have less than 640 KB ( A0000 hex or 655,360 bytes) of memory. In theory, only 32 KB (up to 0000hex : 7FFFhex ) or 64 KB (up to 0000hex : FFFFhex ) are guaranteed to exist; this would be
the case on an IBM XT-class machine equipped with only the required minimum amount of memory for a disk system.
k. ^ such as a routine to do a primitive block move, user I/O, or parse a file system directory
l. ^ This applies when BIOS handles a VBR, which is when it is in the first physical sector of unpartitioned media. Otherwise, BIOS has nothing to do with the VBR. The design of VBRs is such as it is because VBRs
originated solely on unpartitioned floppy disk media—the type 5150 IBM PC originally had no hard disk option—and the partitioning system using an MBR was later developed as an adaptation to put more than one
volume, each beginning with its own VBR as-already-defined, onto a single fixed disk. By this design, essentially the MBR emulates the BIOS boot routine, doing the same things the BIOS would do to process that VBR
and set up the initial operating environment for it if the BIOS found that VBR on an unpartitioned medium.
m. ^ IP is set as a result of the jump. CS may be set to 0 either by making a far jump or by loading it explicitly before making a near jump. (It is impossible for jumped-to x86 code to detect whether a near or far jump was
used to reach it [unless the code that made the jump separately passes this information in some way].)
n. ^ This is not part of the above mentioned proposal, but a natural consequence of pre-existing conditions.
o. ^ For example, PowerQuest's Partition Table Editor (PTEDIT32.EXE), which runs under Windows operating systems, is still available here: Symantec's FTP site .
o. ^ For example, PowerQuest's Partition Table Editor (PTEDIT32.EXE), which runs under Windows operating systems, is still available here: Symantec's FTP site .
References [edit]
1. ^ Howe, Denis (2009-05-19) [1985]. "master boot record" . FOLDOC. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
a bc d
2. ^ "Windows support for hard disks that are larger than 2 TB" . 1. Microsoft. 2013-06-26. 2581408. Archived from the original on 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
3. ^ Hudek, Ted. "Windows 10 hardware dev" . docs.microsoft.com. Windows and GPT FAQ. Microsoft.
a bc
4. ^ Sedory, Daniel B. (2004). "The Mystery Bytes (or the Drive/Timestamp Bytes) of the MS-Windows 95B, 98, 98SE and Me Master Boot Record (MBR)" . Master Boot Records. thestarman.pcministry.com.
Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
5. ^ Lucas, Michael (2003). Absolute OpenBSD: Unix for the practical paranoid . p. 73. ISBN 9781886411999. Retrieved 2011-04-09. "Every operating system includes tools to manage MBR partitions. Unfortunately,
every operating system handles MBR partitions in a slightly different manner."
6. ^ Norton, Peter; Clark, Scott (2002). Peter Norton's New Inside the PC . Sams Publishing. pp. 360–361. ISBN 0-672-32289-7.
7. ^ Graves, Michael W. (2004). A+ Guide To PC Hardware Maintenance and Repair . Thomson Delmar. p. 276. ISBN 1-4018-5230-0.
8. ^ Andrews, Jean (2003). Upgrade and Repair with Jean Andrews . Thomson Course Technology. p. 646. ISBN 1-59200-112-2.
9. ^ Boswell, William (2003). Inside Windows Server 2003 . Addison-Wesley Professional. p. 13. ISBN 0-7357-1158-5.
10. ^ Smith, Roderick W. (2000). The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook. Que Publishing. pp. 260–261. ISBN 0-7897-2283-6.
11. ^ Brouwer, Andries Evert (2004-04-22) [2000]. "Properties of partition tables" . Partition types. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24. "Matthias [R.] Paul writes: "[…] PTS-DOS [uses] a
special fifth partition entry in front of the other four entries in the MBR and corresponding AAP-aware MBR bootstrap code. […]""
12. ^ Brouwer, Andries Evert (2004-04-22) [2000]. "Properties of partition tables" . Partition types. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24. "Some OEM systems, such as AST DOS (type
14hex ) and NEC DOS (type 24hex ) had 8 instead of 4 partition entries in their MBR sectors. (Matthias R. Paul). " (NB. NEC MS-DOS 3.30 and AST MS-DOS partition tables with eight entries are preceded with a
signature A55Ahex at offset +17Chex .)
13. ^ Sedory, Daniel B. (2007-05-18) [2003]. "Notes on the Differences in one OEM version of the DOS 3.30 MBR" . Master Boot Records. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24. "When we
added partitions to this NEC table, the first one was placed at offsets +1EEhex through +1FDhex and the next entry was added just above it. So, the entries are inserted and listed backwards from that of a normal
Table. Thus, looking at such a Table with a disk editor or partition listing utility, it would show the first entry in a NEC eight-entry table as being the last one (fourth entry) in a normal Partition Table." (NB. Shows an 8-
entry partition table and where its boot code differs from MS-DOS 3.30.)
14. ^ "Partition Table" . osdev.org. 2017-03-18 [2007-03-06]. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
a bc
15. ^ System BIOS for IBM PC/XT/AT Computers and Compatibles . Phoenix technical reference. Addison-Wesley. 1989. ISBN 0-201-51806-6.
16. ^ Brouwer, Andries Evert (2013) [1995]. "List of partition identifiers for PCs" . Partition types. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
17. ^ Wood, Sybil (2002). Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Operations Guide . Microsoft Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780735617964.
18. ^ "An Introduction to Hard Disk Geometry" . Tech Juice. 2012-12-06 [2011-08-08]. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04.
19. ^ Kozierok, Charles M. (2001-04-17). "BIOS and the Hard Disk" . The PC Guide. Archived from the original on 2017-06-17. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
20. ^ Smith, Robert (2011-06-26). "Working Around MBR's Limitations" . GPT fdisk Tutorial. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
21. ^ "More than 2 TiB on a MBR disk" . superuser.com. 2013-03-07. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
22. ^ "Transition to Advanced Format 4K Sector Hard Drives" . Tech Insight. Seagate Technology. 2012. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
23. ^ Calvert, Kelvin (2011-03-16). "WD AV‐GP Large Capacity Hard Drives" (PDF). Western Digital. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
24. ^ Smith, Roderick W. (2010-04-27). "Linux on 4KB-sector disks: Practical advice" . DeveloperWorks. IBM. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
a b
25. ^ "MBR (x86)" . OSDev Wiki. OSDev.org. 2012-03-05. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
26. ^ Sedory, Daniel B. (2003-07-30). "IBM DOS 2.00 Master Boot Record" . The Starman's Realm. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
27. ^ Singh, Amit (2009-12-25) [December 2003]. "Booting Mac OS X" . Mac OS X Internals: The Book . Retrieved 2011-07-22.
28. ^ de Boyne Pollard, Jonathan (2011-07-10). "The EFI boot process" . Frequently Given Answers. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
29. ^ Domsch, Matt (2005-03-22) [2003-12-19]. "Re: RFC 2.6.0 EDD enhancements" . Linux Kernel Mailing List . Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
30. ^ "Windows may use Signature() syntax in the BOOT.INI file" . KnowledgeBase. Microsoft.
31. ^ McTavish (February 2014). "Vista's MBR Disk Signature" . Multibooters: Dual and Multibooting with Vista . Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
32. ^ Russinovich, Mark (2011-11-08). "Fixing Disk Signature Collisions" . Mark Russinovich's Blog. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
a bc
33. ^ Sakamoto, Masahiko (2010-05-13). "Why BIOS loads MBR into 0x7C00 in x86?" . Glamenv-Septzen.net. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2011-05-04.
34. ^ a bc de f Compaq Computer Corporation; Phoenix Technologies Ltd.; Intel Corporation (1996-01-11). "BIOS Boot Specification 1.01" (PDF). 1.01. ACPICA. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-24.
Retrieved 2013-04-20. [1]
a b
35. ^ Elliott, David F. (2009-10-12). "Why does the "standard" MBR set SI?" . tgwbd.org. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
a bc
36. ^ Compaq Computer Corporation; Phoenix Technologies Ltd.; Intel Corporation (1994-05-05). "Plug and Play BIOS Specification 1.0A" (PDF). 1.0A. Intel. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-24.
Retrieved 2013-04-20.
37. ^ Paul, Matthias R. (2017-08-14) [2017-08-07]. "The continuing saga of Windows 3.1 in enhanced mode on OmniBook 300" . MoHPC - the Museum of HP Calculators . Archived from the original on 2018-05-01.
Retrieved 2018-05-01. "[…] SYS […] /O[:nnn] Override IPL reported boot drive unit (n=0..126, 128..254). […] "
38. ^ Elliott, Robert (2010-01-04). "EDD-4 Hybrid MBR boot code annex" (PDF). Hewlett Packard, T13 Technical Committee. e09127r3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
39. ^ "FDISK /MBR rewrites the Master Boot Record" . Support. 1. Microsoft. 2011-09-23. 69013. Archived from the original on 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
40. ^ "sfdisk(8) – Linux man page" . die.net. 2013 [2007]. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
41. ^ Brown, Ralf D. (2000-07-16). "Ralf Browns Interrupt List (v61 html)" . Delorie Software. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
42. ^ Brown, Ralf D. (2000-07-16). "B-1302: INT 13 - DISK - READ SECTOR(S) INTO MEMORY" . Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (RBIL) (61 ed.). Retrieved 2016-11-03. (NB. See file INTERRUP.B inside archive
"INTER61A.ZIP.)
 Further reading [edit]

Gilbert, Howard (1996-01-01) [1995]. "Partitions and Volumes" . PC Lube & Tune. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
Knights, Ray (2004-12-22) [2000-12-16]. "Ray's Place" . MBR and Windows Boot Sectors (includes code disassembly and explanations of boot process). Archived from the original on 2017-08-24.
Retrieved 2017-08-24.
Landis, Hale (2002-05-06). "Master Boot Record" . How It Works. Archived from the original on 2014-07-01.
Sedory, Daniel B. (2015-06-25) [2007]. "MBRs (Master Boot Records)" . Boot Records Revealed. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-24. [2] [3]

External links [edit]

Article on master boot record

Categories: BIOS Booting Disk partitions

This page was last edited on 14 June 2019, at 19:39 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Developers Cookie statement Mobile view